Category: Chrono

A Gallic touch (with a little help from the Greeks)

The Humble Fabulist2 Comments

This magnificent gilded bronze relief graces the entrance of La Maison Française, part of the Rockefeller Center. A token of friendship between France and the United States, it depicts the two Cities – Paris and New York – reaching towards each other, showered with the gifts brought by the Three Graces, underneath.

According to Greek Mythology, the Three Graces were daughters of Zeus and the Oceanid (daughter of the Ocean) Eurynome. They were:

Aglaia – representing elegance, splendour
Thalia – representing youth, beauty
Euphrosyne – representing mirth

For the purposes of said friendship they became Poésie, Beauté & Elégance, an unwittingly apt transformation judging by their strategic location, watching over Saks Fifth Avenue right across the street.

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Sculpture by Alfred Janniot, ca. 1934 (more reading here & here)

La Maison Française
610 Fifth Avenue
New York

September 28th, 2016

Walking. Dreaming. Adrift.

The Humble Fabulist2 Comments

wp20160925_183304 wp20160925_183305 wp20160925_183350Sleepwalker, 2014
Tony Matelli
Bronze, acrylic, paint

The Sleepwalker will be meandering about in a deep sleep until March 2017 on the High Line. In his dream, people walk past giving him strange looks. Some long to touch him. Others are afraid.

I want to dream like the Sleepwalker. Perhaps I do. Perhaps my whole life is but a long sleepwalk. I’ll know when I wake up. Perhaps I never will.

September 25th, 2016